SENTIMENTS OF FOREIGN POWERS, ETC.
Notwithstanding the declarations of the secretary of state for foreign affairs, and likewise of his majesty, that there was nothing to fear from foreign powers, it is evident that at this very period there was much to fear from those quarters. France and Spain both smarted under the disgrace of the late wars, and burned for revenge, whence there was every reason to apprehend that the armaments they were preparing, under various pretences, would ultimately be employed against England. Then again, Frederic of Prussia entertained strong feelings of resentment against us, for the manner in which he had been treated during the late war, and the Czarina of Russia had absolutely refused her promised aid. Moreover the naval superiority of Great Britain had excited the envy of almost every other state; and they longed to see it diminished. It does not appear, indeed, that any foreign potentate looked with an approving or an unjaundiced eye upon the part taken by Britain, except the Emperor of Austria, and as this part was in strict accordance with the monarchical principles of the Austrian court, his aid might fairly be expected. These well-known sentiments of foreign powers had doubtless the effect of stimulating the Americans in their factious opposition to their mother country, and England ought to have been warned by them. But England itself was like a divided house upon this subject. The Americans in fact were more encouraged by the people of England in their rebellion than by the hostile sentiments of foreign powers. Recent pages fully prove that they had their advocates in parliament,—men who not only justified their proceedings, but likewise exhibited to them in their speeches “the nakedness of the land,” in strange, unjustifiable, and hyperbolical language. Like the false spies among the Hebrews, they spread an evil report of their country’s resources, and hence held it forth to the contempt of the colonists. In this they were also aided by the political writers of the day. The press teemed with publications in favour of the colonists, and every breeze wafted them across the mighty waters to add fuel to the flames. One of the most conspicuous of these writers was Dr. Price, whose work entitled, “Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, &c.;” sought to depreciate the British government, and extolled the spirit which gave rise to the American revolution. Powerful pens, as that of Dr. Johnson, were, it is true, employed on the other side of the question,—but sentiments in accordance with the feelings of an individual or a whole people will ever maintain a preponderating influence. Moreover, it must be confessed that those writers who took the part of government often wrote in an illiberal and unenlightened spirit, so that their emanations had an equally powerful effect in confirming the Americans in their views and designs, as those which proceeded from the pens of their advocates. From every party, in truth, and on every hand, the colonists received encouragement in their hostility to the British crown.